Upholstery tacking strip



Aug- 7, 1956 R. F. DUVAL UPHOLSTERY "PACKING STRIP Filed March 18, 1950 Ronald F Duyavl dttorneg UPHLSTERY TACKING STRIP Ronald F. Duval, Leominster,

Band, Inc., Leominster, chusetts Mass., assignor to Tack Mass., a corporation of Massa- 2 Claims.

This invention relates to upholstered furniture and more particularly to furniture having wooden frames to which an outer covering of fabric is tacked.

According to the standard procedure for upholstering furniture, the fabric has an edge folded over, and closely spaced tacks are driven through the fold to hold the fabric in place on the furniture. Where a second piece of fabric meets the first, such as atan edge of the woodwork, there are two abutting edges of fabric having a space line therebetween and two adjacent rows of tacks showing. These tacks are unsightly, and it is customary to use antique tacks to give a more pleasing appearance. A binding tape may be tacked over the heads of the tacks, but here again the second set of tacks shows. If a welt is used to cover the meeting edge or space line between the two pieces of fabric, this is tacked on first and then the fabric tacked over it. Yet the welt does not conceal all of the tacks. This operation is slow, laborious and expensive, and it requires considerable skill. The fabric must be pulled into place, as it is being tacked, under the right pressure which will not stretch the fabric too much at the point of tacking but will leave it smooth. To avoid an unsightly appearance due to pulling the fabric out of shape, it is customary to use a large number of tacks, and often they are placed with their heads almost in contact. rl`his means that more tacks show. Even then, there is necessarily a localized pull against the fabric where each tack passes through it, and this strain on the fabric therefore produces with the passing of time an increasing effect of distortion or pulling of the cloth. Moreover, the exposed heads of tacks are liable to injure clothing, and particularly as the tacks gradually loosen from their locations they become more of a menace to both person and clothing. The tacks may also become dislodged either accidentally or because a person may absent-mindedly pry some of them loose. The fabric then becomes distorted because of the absence of the tack, and it soon tears at this location. For the operation of upholstering a wooden frame, the Workman customarily fills his mouth with tacks, and this involves both danger and discomfort. The tacks have tobe sterilized ahead of time, and even then the upholsterer is quite likely to swallow at least one tack in the course of a day. This may prove to be serious.

Another method has been to tack the folded edges of two pieces of fabric in place with spaced tacks, and then the operator sews the two adjacent edges together by thread that matches the fabric. After that, the tacks are withdrawn so as to leave only the sewing showing. That is a time consuming and expensive operation. Moreover, the thread may wear away, and especially if it is located in an exposed place subject to friction, and then the two pieces of fabric pull apart and the upholstery becomes unsightly and defective. There are various other disadvantages in such standard procedures.

It is the primary object of this invention to overcome such problems and to provide upholstered furniture which is economically manufactured by time and labor saving States Patent a 2,757,319 Patented Aug. 7,

icc

methods and which has a neat appearance and a long life of usefulness.

A further object is to provide an article of furniture which comprises. a wooden frame on which upholstery fabric, is secured by standardized tacking units which are quickly applied and serve to hold the fabric properly stretched and positioned.

The specific object of this invention is to provide a flexible but shape-retaining upholstery binding and tacking strip which will hold a set of tacks fixed in a uniformly spaced arrangement, and about which an edge portion of upholstering fabric may be wrapped and thereafter secured in place on a wooden furniture frame by hammering against the strip and driving the tacks thereof into place, with the strip fully concealed and holding the fabric smoothly and uniformly extended` Other objects will be readily apparent in the following disclosure.

in accordance with this invention, I propose to upholster furniture and to secure in place the cloth, plastic or other suitable fabric by means of a unitary tacking strip having a row of tacks piercing and holding the fabric on the woodwork. The tacking strip preferably comprises a thin fiexible strip of material, such as metal, which secures a row of tack heads in a spaced uniform relationship with their Shanks projecting laterally and substantially in; parallelism. rl`he fabric edge portion is preferably folded over the back of the tacking strip and is properly positioned by a guide edge thereof and so conceals the tacking strip.

Referring to the drawings, illustrating embodiments of this invention:

Fig. l is a fragmentary isometric View of a corner portion of a chair and which is broken away to show various layers of fabric and associated parts;

Fig. 2v is an isometric View of a tacking strip;

Fig. 3 is an end view of the tacking strip;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary View, partly broken away, of the top portion of another form of chair;

Fig. Sis ay fragmentary enlarged sectional detail showing, the manner of assembling the upholstery fabric and tacking strip; and

Fig. 6 isV a central longitudinal section through the tacking strip of Fig. 2.

Referring iirst to-Figs. 2l and 3, the tacking strip cornprises a thin strip of suitable material 16, such as metal or plastic, which is shaped to hold a row of tacks 11 in spaced and parallel relationship. The tacking strip is soconstructed that the tacks are securely positioned, and the tacking strip may be applied as a unit. In its preferred construction, the tacking strip i@ comprises a at strip of flexible material, and preferably anV elongated, narrow and thin sheet of resilient steel, which is shaped as shown to provide two flanges 12 that are bent or folded back with their inner adjacent edges spaced from the strip body and spaced from each other slightly more than the width of the shank of a tack so as to provide a slide: way. After assembling a row o-f tacks endwise in the slide way formed by the two flanges, the latter are pressed tightly against the strip body and crimped at i3 around the tack heads 14 so as to hold them fixed in position, as sho-wn in Figs. 2 and 6. That is, the crimped metal portion 13 of the flanges touches the rear or inside face of the central portion of the strip except where it bends upwardly to a slight extent over the thin tack head.

f Various methods of manufacture may be adopted. Owing to the thinness of the material, the strip is flexible and may be bent into a curved position. as indicated at the upper part of Fig. 4. Likewise, the tacking strip may be pre-shaped as shown in the lower part of Fig. 4 to provide a curved or shaped piece that will fit a given curved shape of a piece. of furniture. The tacking strip may also be made of a flexible or elastic molded plastic material, such as by extruding a double U-shaped strip with the anges spaced from the strip, after which the tacks are assembled and the flanges squeezed into place. Such a tacking strip may be bent sufficiently during its fabrication or use to satisfy the required needs. Since the upholstery is held in part by the frictional and clamping pressure of the faces of the flanges when the tacking strip is tacked in place and in part by being wrapped around one edge of the tacking strip, it is not necessary that the tacks be as closely spaced as when separate tacks are employed. For example, a suitable tacking strip for hard wood furniture may have the tacks spaced uniformly by about one inch apart and be about one-half inch wide, and the exposed shank of the tack may be about one-half inch long or suiciently long to insure that, once the tacks have been driven into place, the tacking strip cannot become readily dislodged.

The elongated tacking strip of suitable length may be clamped directly against an unfolded or a folded edge portion of fabric 16 (Fig. 5), but it is preferred to wrap the fabric around the tacking strip, so that the edge portion 18 of the fabric is tightly pressed against the wooden frame member 19. If the fabric is looped around the tacking strip, as illustrated in Fig. 5, the edge portion 20 of the tacking strip forms a straight edge or guide which insures that the fabric will be drawn smoothly and with uniform tension throughout its extent. Moreover, the upper layer of the fabric 16 covers the top surface of the tacking strip 10 and conceals it entirely from view. To mount this edge portion of the fabric, it is, therefore, merely necessary to pass the row of tacks of the tacking strip through the fabric from the reverse side and drive them into the wood, after which the fabric is folded back over the tacking strip and drawn snugly into place. A similar procedure is adopted to secure the far edge of that particular piece of fabric except that the fabric is rolled over the tacking strip edge before the tacks are driven into place by hammering against the cloth over the tacking strip. With the use of only a moderate degree of skill, the upholsterer may make a very smooth and neatly appearing product.

It will now be appreciated that the above described procedure may be adopted for all types of upholstery operations. Fig. l illustrates diagrammatically a chair frame comprising two wooden members 25 and 26 suitably secured together to provide a top corner construction on which upholstery fabric is to be applied to form both the front 27 and the back 28. It will be assumed that a suitable spring construction or foam rubber or other required parts are suitably mounted between these front and back fabric portions 27 and 28 and that suit able padding may be applied beneath the fabrics, as is well understood. These parts are, however, omitted for the sake of clarity of illustration. Although the procedure may be modified or simplified according to the special requirements of the job or the desire of the upholsterer, it will be assumed that the front covering 27 is applied first and that applying the back 28 represents the final operation. The front fabric 27, after being cut to size, has an edge portion 30 laid across the top of the wooden frame member 25 and is lightly tacked in place with spaced tacks 31. Also, a portion 32 is drawn around the right-hand end of the frame construction and tacked in place on the vertical wall 33 of the framework. This fabric piece may be similarly drawn over and tacked to the top of the frame member 25, but this is not illustrated.

It is often desired to employ a welt strip 35 to conceal all adjoining edges or space lines between two pieces of the upholstery fabric. This welt comprises a piece of fabric. and preferably of the same material as the parts 27 and 28, which is sewed around a central rope-like filling or other core 36. The sewed free edge portion 37 of the welt, if used, is likewise tacked to the top of the wooden piece 25, but the tacks may be widely spaced since they are merely to position the welt. A top covering piece 38 of the fabric is now perforated by the tacks 39 of the tacking strip while the fabric is folded back over the front part 27 and the tacks of the tacking strip 40 are driven home. Then the fabric is thrown back into position over the top of the chair and is thus folded over the tacking strip and positioned by the longitudinal straight edge portion of the tacking strip, as illustrated. The tacking strip is positioned close to the raised portion of the welt, and the folded edge of the fabric is concealed by the welt thereover. Thus, the tacking strip clamps against the under fold of the fabric 38 and against the part 37 of the welt and against the edge portion 30 of the front fabric 37 and so holds all of them secured in position. The tacking strip 40 is, of course, cut to the required length to secure the whole edge portion of the fabric in place.

The same procedure may be adopted at the back of the chair. The portion 42 of the fabric 38 which overhangs the back is lightly tacked in place by a few tacks 43, if desired. A welt strip 44 is applied with its roll or beaded edge suitably positioned adjacent to the corner, either before or after the tacks 43 are driven in. Then the back fabric 28 is thrown forward over the chair front, and the tacking strip 45 is applied to the rear face of the fabric, in the manner above described, and its tacks are driven into the vertical frame part 25. Thereafter, the outer fabric layer 28 is thrown back into position and so folded around the tacking strip 45 and guided by its upper straight edge. This serves to clamp and frictionally hold the part 42 of the fabric 38, the welt 44 and the under fold of the fabric 28 in position. Likewise, another welt 48 and tacking strip 49 may be employed in the same manner to secure the various parts at the vertical right-hand edge of the chair frame. Similar procedure is adopted to provide an upper weltconcealed edge at the top right-hand portion of the chair. It will also be appreciated that one may combine this procedure with some of the standard practice in which a row of tacks may be applied where the tacking strip is not particularly needed.

If an overhanging curved top 50 of a chair is to be upholstered, as shown in Fig. 4, a tacking strip 51 of the type shown in Fig. 2 may be suitably bent and applied to the fabric. The tacking strip is preferably made of flexible material and so will readily conform to any curve in the plane of the tacks. yThe cloth 52 may be wrapped over the projecting curved shoulder 53 of the framework and tacked lightly in place on the undercut or recessed part S4 of the framework. Another piece of fabric 56 is then positioned by a shaped tacking strip 57 which is tacked in place to hold both the fabric 52 and the fabric 56 in position. The tack band 57 may be preshaped to the exact curve, as shown, or if a suitable flexible material is employed the tacking strip may be bent when assembled.

It will also be appreciated that other portions of the chair, such as the seat and arms, may be suitably upholstered with cloth, plastic or other fabric, and with or without a welt, in accordance with the principles and procedure above described. The seat has its springs and pad rst positioned on suitable webbing fasted on the framework. Then the fabric is drawn over the springs and padding and secured in place by means of the tacking strips driven preferably into the underside of the chair frame. These tacking strips will draw the fabric snugly into position and make a neat appearance. It will also be appreciated that the tacking strip will clamp the fabric so tightly in place that pressure involved in the normal use of a chair will be transmitted evenly and will not be so locally applied as to cause stretching or tearing of the fabric where the tack Shanks are inserted.

Various advantages of this procedure and construction will be apparent to one skilled in the art, and he will find many ready uses for the tacking strip for up holstering the various types of furniture, and particularly where the fabric is subjected to very severe usage or if labor makes up a large proportion of the cost. The upholsten'ng operation can be accomplished far more quickly than is done by the st mdard methods and, therefore, at much less cost. Instead of having to pull the fabric into place and apply the tacks one after another, the operator merely applies a tacking strip of pre-cut length to the fabric and quickly drives it permanently into position by a few well-placed blows. Only a moderate degree of skill is needed to put the fabric under the required tension and smoothness. This even tension is particularly desirable for the non-woven fabrics, such as the plastic sheet materials commonly used and which are somewhat fragile and likely to be torn by the shanks of the tacks. Wrapping the fabric around the tacking strip avoids any material degree of pull of the fabric against the individual tack Shanks. This avoids all necessity for sewing cloth fabrics together, and yet it leaves a very neat appearance, and especially if a welt is used to conceal the fabric edges. It may also be observed that a fabric cannot ordinarily be pulled back over a row of tacks to conceal the tack heads, as is done in connection with the tacking strip, since the tack heads would very soon cut their Way through the fabric. Hence, the tacks have always been put out in the open, and this has required using expensive and fancy-headed tacks and other subterfuges to make them less noticeable.

I claim:

1. An upholstery tacking strip comprising a single elongated strip of thin, stiff and shape retaining, ilexible material having a flat front portion, longitudinal side flanges integral therewith which are folded back and lie substantially parallel with the front portion but are separated centrally from the strip at spaced locations by the thickness of a tack head, the edges of the anges 6, being spaced a little more than the thickness of the tack shank and the flanges forming opposed slideway grooves for assembling and holding cach tack head against said front portion, a series of tacks arranged in a uniformly spaced relationship with their heads held under the anges and their top in contact with the front portion of the strip and with their Shanks projecting in a substantially parallel relationship between said anges so that they may be driven into position by blows applied against the strip front, said single strip being the sole support for the tacks, and said flanges being crimped between and close to the tack heads and lying substantially in contact with the front portion of the strip and firmly engaging the under faces of the tack heads and holding them rigidly in place to prevent longitudinal sliding or tilting movement of the tacks relative to each other and within the grooves of the tacking strip.

2. An upholstery tacking strip according to claim 1 in which the tacking strip is preshaped as an arcuate body with its front portion lying substantially in a plane and its folded edges are shaped to lie in concentric curves lying substantially within the plane of said front portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 596,803 Buob Jan. 4, 1898 1,209,533 Abbott Dec. 19, 1916 1,611,751 Karpen et al Dec. 2l, 1926 1,721,629 Jones July 23, 1929 2,140,234 Lamer Dec. 13, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS 185,218 Great Britain Aug. 31, 1923 420,566 France Nov. 26, 1910 

